Twenty-three years ago Pepe Fanjul went to the Dominican Republic on business and stayed for love. “I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful to have a house in the Caribbean, a very airy, outdoor atmosphere—not busy—with ocean views from every window and lots of grass and greens, since my wife is an expert gardener. We didn’t want a marble palace; nothing formal like our New York apartment or even my ranch, just something that fit the area, a Caribbean feel—Bali Caribbean, if you will.”

Not surprisingly, Alfy Fanjul was on the same page—make that beach. For 20 years the two brothers have thrived not only as siblings but as business partners, most recently in a prominent sugar company. So when the charmingly indigenous La Romana house of the late Gulf + Western chairman, Charles Bluhdorn—with its blood-mahogany floors, great room, library, bedroom and three bungalows—became available, the two snapped it up.

“And it’s ideal,” Pepe Fanjul says of their his-and-his property, on the Casa de Campo resort, “because though we share the main house, on either side—Alfy on the right, me left—we each have a separate residence”—not to mention beach. “Since the cottages connect by outdoor walkways,” says designer Lillian Fernandez, “the house flows as one space.”

She ought to know. Alfy Fanjul’s daughter, Fernandez has been there since the beginning, when, “after making a few alterations to make it livable, the families moved in. Being a big, traditional Cuban family, we love being together; in fact, we’ve lived next door to each other, to my grandparents, all my life. And this house is a continuation of that—family, friends, tons of kids always around, everybody sitting down together at the table.”

And, of course, outdoors. “It’s a typical Balinese house—totally open, no window treatments, because the only thing we do inside is sleep,” she explains, a sentiment echoed by her uncle. “As much as I can be, I’m outside,” says Pepe Fanjul. “It’s where we do all our entertaining. If we go into the house at night, ever, it’s because it’s raining. The inside areas,” he chuckles, “are what I would call emergency areas.”

Which is exactly what the Dominican Republic turned into when Hurricane George suddenly ripped through it on September 20, 1998. “It was like a scene from World War II,” Pepe Fanjul says of the devastation he encountered upon arriving in Santo Domingo a week after the storm shredded the island. As for the family’s house, “everything was wrecked, from wastebaskets on up,” recalls Fernandez. “The walls were gone; the roof was in the driveway; the only thing left in the library was the floors.” She pauses. “To go there the day after and see how much suffering the people went through made me unbelievably sad. But in six months they rebuilt. You’d never have known what happened. We were up and running by Christmas, which is when our real decorating began.”

Today, while the family shows up for Christmas, New Year’s and a couple of weeks in February and April, the Fanjul boys land on the property’s heliport for board meetings, though “working in paradise,” laughs Pepe Fanjul, “is harder than working in your office.”

Paradise indeed. Thanks to his wife, Emilia, the spacious grounds are draped in emerald foliage, awash in an array of exquisitely nurtured, rainbow-hued tropical plants. The main house, meanwhile, with its wicker and its lavish, sink-into sofas, remains a cool study in timeless, tropical chic, “very casual, very family, very ‘don’t-worry-you’re-going-to-break-something,’” as Fernandez puts it. “Everything gets redone often, but the house doesn’t feel new because, since it’s on the ocean, nothing stays new for long.”

The property’s most cherished accoutrement, however, is constant and irreplaceable. “What makes the island is the Dominican people,” Fernandez says. “Not only do they know how to enjoy themselves, they have the most beautiful disposition, always offering help. You never hear a Dominican say, ‘I can’t do that,’ just, ‘I’ll try my best to see if I can.’ They make it an extraordinary place to spend time.”

Pepe Fanjul doesn’t disagree. “If you’re going to have a house in the tropics, I can’t think of a nicer place. In fact, frankly, you can’t beat it.”